The draft of the smoke free ordinance was posted last night on the Kenton County website. While it is technically a Kenton County ordinance this is the draft that will likely be used by the Campbell County Commission as to gather public input.
The various county commission meetings will be the first step in getting the ordinance passed. It appears that Pendery and Drees are going to rush the ordinance through before the new commissioners take office in Campbell County.
To me this seems like a fairly big waste of time since the new commissioners will likely take up a repeal as soon as they take office after the first of the year. I have asked the new commissioner Pete Garrett for his thoughts but so far no response. I am not sure what procedural hurdles may be in the way of a repeal but unless it is extremely difficult to repeal then this feels like a waste of time. Am I missing something here?
Regan Coomer of the Kenton County Connects blog has a good summary of what is covered in the ordinance and can be viewed in the link.
According to a recent Enquirer article, Ralph Drees will not press for the passage of the ordinance without the support of Campbell County but I wonder if Kenton County will be left holding the bag when the new Commissioners take over and repeal the ordinance…. I assume Kenton would follow their lead, although it they could be past the point of no return with no support for a repeal.
Should be an interesting couple months of Northern Kentucky politics. Stay tuned.